Washington, D.C. — Today, the Biden administration announced new regulations to curb methane emissions from oil and gas drilling operations as part of its broader commitment to combat climate change. In response, John Podesta, founder and member of the Board of Directors at the Center for American Progress, and Christy Goldfuss, senior vice president for Energy and Environment Policy at CAP, issued the following statement:
As one of the most potent climate pollutants, there is no path to holding warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius without significantly reducing methane emissions over the next 10 years. This proposal from President Joe Biden and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan is the next critical step to build on the ambitious framework of investments that the president and Congress announced last week to tackle the climate crisis.
These strong standards will provide certainty for industry while rapidly slashing pollution across the oil and gas sector. Together, these hand-in-hand actions show that the Biden administration is committed to meeting the climate test, putting us on the right path to cutting climate pollution in half by 2030. This announcement also sets the United States on a path to meet the goals of the Global Methane Pledge that the United States and the European Union first previewed at the meeting of the Major Economies Forum in September, which now includes nearly 90 countries committed to reducing methane by 30 percent by 2030 from 2020 levels.
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